Hi,

I am trying to clone a running Suse 9.2 system.

Back with Suse 8.2 all I had to do was:
1.) copy / to the new location
2.) add a new entry for the cloned system in /boot/grub/menu.lst
3.) chroot to the cloned system
4.) modify /etc/fstab of the cloned system
5.) mount /boot Partition
6.) create a new initrd
7.) exit chroot and reboot
-> works

At Suse 9.2 step 5.) does not work.

venus:/# mount -t ext3 /dev/hda5 /boot
mount: special device /dev/hda5 does not exist

Displaying /dev shows that /dev/hda5 is non-existent

venus:/# ls /dev
. .. .udev.tdb null
venus:/#

I suppose this is because udev is not running in chroot-Environment...but how can i start it manually?
What about sysfs - i read somewhere that sysfs is needed by udev - do i have to start sysfs too?

Thanks in advance for the help

what does fdisk's partition table say about your /dev/hda?

Maybe this is easier if you'd use a distro that also uses udev, e.g. KNOPPIX with kernel 2.6

my partition table:
-------------------

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 26902 13558576+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 146041 155055 4543560 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/hda3 26903 146040 60045552 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 92439 92601 82120+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 26903 47708 10486161 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 92602 95722 1572952+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda8 95723 116528 10486192+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 47709 58111 5243080+ 8e Linux LVM
/dev/hda10 58112 80997 11534512+ 8e Linux LVM

Partition table entries are not in disk order

-> the system i want to clone resides on /dev/hda6
-> target for clonig ist /dev/hda10 (via LVM2)


The Suse 9.2 from which i try to do the cloning also uses udev, so why should i switch to KNOPPIX 2.6?

I tried the steps with KNOPPIX 2.6 but did not manage to load LVM-Module.
Is dm_mod (LVM2) not included in KNOPPIX 2.6?

before you chroot try
mount -o bind /dev /dir/of/new/dev

that command I had to use when installing Gentoo linux in order to get it to properly read my Promise FastTrack Raid chips.

for instance

mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev

and then

chroot /bin/bash

thanks, that worked!

but now i ran in a new problem.
I built the new initrd and rebooted.
The cloned system starts, all the messages rush by - i can't see errors - perhaps because my eyes are too slow
I can see loading of lvm modules as well as filesystem modules (reiser, ext3)...
After loading of USB-Driver (before init starts) something like

md: stopping all md devices appears
md: restarting system

i have no chance to really check the startup output for errors...
i don't use md at all ?! so can't imagine what that means...

Any ideas?